Rose
by WoahWut
Summary: All diseases start somewhere.


All diseases start somewhere.

Such as Donald Triplett, the first man to be diagnosed with Autism. Or Bobbi Campbell, first man with AIDS.

Now, Doctor Cox nor Doctor Dorian had met either of these men, but they did get the chance to see the birth of a whole new disease.

A long time patient with a terminal (or so to be told) illness was born in Sacred Heart Hospital over twelve years ago, with purple eyes and an already failed kidney. The parents were only passing through the town, the man had a promising future as a State Representative, even Mayor, and the woman a lovely housewife with no maternal instinct at all. With the knowledge that their daughter was born with a possible deformity or illness they had no idea of, the man gave the hospital thousands of dollars, let the doctor take the baby away, and left town.

Perry Cox was only an intern at the time, and put to the task of giving the baby nutrients every two hours. He had less than any paternal instinct, but fury did in fact rage through him when he was told that baby had no name.

And thus, the violet eyed baby was named Rose Garamendi(1).

Months passed, and Rose grew up rather fast. At One year, the girl had yet to meet her real parents, and reffered to the new nurse, Carla Espinosa, as "Mommy," which made the nurse blush and smile, but she still tapped her on the wrist for it.

Perry finished his internship soon after the girl was born, and now prided himself to be called Doctor Cox. He still took care of the little girl, teaching her to say "Pury" instead of 'Dada', as to not make the nurse blush more. Rose was all giggles, clapping her hands at so much as a grin and bouncing along to music. Her failed kidney slowly started working again, and by the time she was four it was a fully functioning organ.

When she was three, she had a seizure that led to a collapsed lung, and while she was in the emergency room, Doctor Cox had the pleasure to meet Nurse Espinosa, who was crying as hard as he was. After that, her eyes seemed duller, a bright violet turned to a plain purple, looking more sunken into her face than normal.

At five, she saw her parents for the first time. Her legs had given out and she was hooked to a pain killing IV, and Doctor Cox had to carry her down to the waiting room, since the man and woman refused to come up there "where the germs were." They were not pleased at the name Rose, and made a notion to change it. Rose cocked her head and asked why, and the woman had the balls to say, "Mommy doesn't like it." Rose looked even more confused, and retorted with "But Mommy said she loved my name."

A day later, the man and woman left with their daughter, saying they were taking her to a better hospital in another part of California, and set a law suit on Nurse Espinosa, saying it was a sin of the woman to get so close to a child.

Four years passed until they saw the girl again, and, as it turns out, Rose remembered them. She saw only a small glimpse of Doctor Cox before she had staggered towards him and engulfed his legs into her tiny arms. The man's student, Intern John "JD" Dorian, had never seen the man honestly smile or laugh as hard as he did when he saw the tiny girl, but it was imprinted in his skull.

"So, tell me," Rose had said as Perry had lifted her into his arms and was carrying her to her room, "have you and Mommy missed me?" He didn't reply, simple held her tighter, kissed her head, and turned on his heel, careful not to hit her head. "But my room's that way?" She lifted an arm and wrapped it around his neck, pointed behind them.

"But Mommy's this way," he said happily, bouncing on his heel and dropping the girl gently into a sitting position on the Nurse's station. "Oh, Carla," he basically sang to the flood of women behind the stand. Nurse Espinosa turned in her seat slowly, still mouthing things to the black man and blonde girl as she was halfway around. Her eyes landed on the girl and she cocked her head in confusion, which turned to joy when Rose opened her mouth and whispered, "Hi, Mommy."

Rose Garamendi, JD had found out, was like a ray of sunlight to the hospital. Even Kelso came out of his cave to visit the girl. She had an unknown terminal disease, Turk had dug up, and she had a connection to Perry and Carla that was stronger that his and JD's.

When Perry had brought his interns to her room, he had to use every one of them to fix IV's in her arms and shots in her stomach as she hyperventilated herself into a seizure. Doctor Cox refused to leave her side, sending JD and Elliot to do regulars with his other patients. When she woke, Rose demanded pictures of Perry's son and wife (ex-wife, he felt the need to remind her every second or two) or else she'd tell all of his interns about the man who took care of her as a baby. He pulled pictures out of his wallet, then left for sleep when Carla came in and told him to get some of it.

Carla introduced her 'daughter' to the important people in her life, her black boyfriend, obviously gay man-boy, and ditzy blonde girl. The black guy introduced himself as Turk, and a small remembrance of Kelso muttering about a 'Turkleton' rose in her head. The blonde was Elliot, who rambled for a whole ten minutes about her man name. The gay man was John Dorian, but she prided herself in calling him Johnny.

"What makes you so special to the people around here, anyway?" He asked, sitting on the end of her bed and folding her patient chart into him a few days later.

Rose shrugged, laying her book flat on her lap and scooting onto her butt. "I was born here to two people who didn't want me, with a disease no one knows a cure for, or even what it is. Perry was told to take care of me, and became attached. Mommy always had me, sometimes she wouldn't leave the hospital for days if something happened to me. Like, when I had my first seizure, Perry and Mom didn't leave my room for two whole weeks. Literally."

"I'm sure your parents wanted you," he said, bringing his other leg up and sitting Indian style opposite of her.

"They didn't," she shook her head. "My biological dad is a huge politician, and a couple years ago, he basically told me that he didn't need a dying daughter to be on his record. Haven't seen him or my biological mom since."

"You keep saying 'biological', are you adopted?" He pulled a piece of candy out of his pocket, reaching out to give it to her. She popped it in her mouth, him following suit with another piece.

"Perry and Carla are my parents, as far as the mothering and fathering thing goes. Momma's never once told me to call her something else, and Perry didn't want me to call him Dad, ever, so I always called him 'Pury', which totally killed his masculinity whenever he was yelling at his interns." She smiled. "And Kelso liked me at first because my biological parents donated a ton of money to finding out what I had, which hasn't happened yet, and left me here. Literally. I didn't meet them until I was five, and I was well into the knowledge that Carla and Perry were my Mom and Dad. I called Carla Mommy in front of them, and they transferred me to a different hospital and slapped a lawsuit on her."

"They sued Carla because you called her 'Mommy?'"

"Yupp. They didn't wanna admit that they weren't being parent material, but when I was seven they basically gave up on me. That's why I'm back here." JD looked at her quizzically. She sighed. "Perry probably hasn't told anybody yet, but my biological parents let me come back here because the doctors at my other hospital said I only had a short time left, and they want me to be happy when I die."

A clot formed in JD's throat. "You're not gonna die. I promise."

She snorted and smiled sadly. "Tell that to my failing body."

Johnny became the fourth person to fall in her heart, with the black boyfriend following suit. He had preformed an operation to remove her appendix, and ended up finding a mass attached to her gallbladder. They got the mass removed, which ended a small battle of cancer they found the day before they removed it.

Rose ended up fist-bumping Johnny after that.

Two months later, Johnny and Perry took her to her first day of school. Her legs still weren't used to the extra movement, so she stumbled and limped a lot, but she looked all too happy to want to walk properly. Johnny came a couple hours later and ate lunch with her, which resulted in a few people to ask her if that was her dad, and Perry picked her up after school. She pointed at him and called him her Dad, then let him carry her to his car.

She stayed in the hospital for physical therapy afterwards, and lived with Perry and his son after that, without her biological parents knowing. For all they knew, she was dead.

The happiness of being out of the hospital didn't stay for long. On her eleventh birthday, she fell down a flight of stairs and broke both her legs. When they got her to the hospital, she had an allergic reaction to the medication and had two seizures in one night.

Two days later, her biological parents came to get her. She put up a fight, yelling that they knew nothing about her and they were only ruining her life by moving her again. Her mother only grabbed her hands and dragged her out, and she disappeared for four more years.

When she came back her legs were completely given out, both her kidneys were faulty, and she had an average of two seizures a day. Her eyes were still dull and purple, and she had a small breakout of acne on her forehead. Her mood was rather sour, but she perked up the moment Johnny popped into her room.

"Johnny, I've missed you so much!" Rose couldn't move her legs from the bed, but she threw her arms up to him. When he pulled away, she grabbed his hand and lifted an eyebrow. "A ring? Oh lala. Who's the lucky guy?"

He blushed, rubbing the back of his neck and sitting on the end of her bed. "How've you been, Rosey?"

She clicked her tongue. "Dandy. I've lost all feeling in my legs, and it's becoming slightly harder to move my fingers. My kidney's have failed, and seizures have become a regular. Oh, and my parents adopted a girl, who they're selling off as me, because I'm stuck in a hospital bed. How've you been, Johnny?"

"Well I-I'm married." He rubbed the back of his neck. "I'm gonna go get Perry and Carla."

Her eyes lit up. "Hurry. I wanna see my Mommy."

Perry was almost jumping from happiness, and Carla was crying. Rose only laughed, but JD could see her holding back her tears.

Until she smiled wickedly. "Pury, is that a wedding band?"

And so she had them spill everything to them. JD and Perry had been married for not even a year, and both of them taking care of the two children Jordan had left with Perry. The little boy, Jack, who was now eight, and Jennifer, who was three. Carla had married black surgeon, and had a three year old daughter and a newborn son. She smiled through all of it, holding back tears. "So how have you been, sweetie?" Carla eventually asked, rubbing the girl's arm.

"I'm gonna die, aren't I?" Rose had a thing about cutting to the chase, never sugarcoating things or letting them slide under her nose.

JD made the same promise, although this time it was laced with uncertainty.

The next day, JD brought in Jack and Jennifer to pick up Perry for dinner, since it was his day off, and ended up sitting in Rose's room, feeding the kids graham crackers and apple juice from the vending machines as they spent time with their Daddy's other child.

Eventually, thanks to countless fights with Johnny and Perry about undergoing treatment for the ability to use her legs, she started taking countless treatments for her legs, and, eventually, she could stand up on her own. Carla cried.

A year passed before anything bad happened. Her heart stopped for two minutes, which led to to sleepless nights and extra nannies for Johnny and Perry, who spent hundreds of their own dollars to fix the girl who called him "Daddy," when they took her in the emergency room.

"How are you doing, kiddo?" Perry asked one day, setting her up to look at his face. Her skin at broken out into mountains of pimples now, her let eye swollen from an allergic reaction, and her eyes even duller than he thought possible. He managed a small smile.

She blinked, her face emotionless. "I'm gonna die soon. I can feel it." A tear slid down her face. "I love you, Dad."

He bit his lip, falling to his knees and resting his hands on her cold one. "You're not gonna die. I promise you that. I won't let you die."

She smiled sadly. "Even if they do find a cure, what's good about it? I'll be cured, sure, but what will I have to go home to? A traveling father who doesn't want me in his life, a mother with no feeling about whether I'm going to live or die, an adopted sister that I'd have to pretend is me? They'll probably ship me off to a boarding school in Scotland or something, or give me up for adoption. And then, I'll be stuck with God knows what. A couple chain smokers, who's daughter ran away from them when she was five. I don't have a life to go to. So why should I even try?"

A tear slid down his cheek. "What if Janis and I adopted you? That way you could always be with doctors who know what they're doing, you'll always have a stable home, you'll have siblings, we'll get a pet-"

"No, Per-"

"Yes." He looked her right in the eye. "When you live, you'll be my daughter. Officially. I demand it to happen."

She smiled sadly. "You can demand all you want, but you're not a magic worker."

Four days later, a run through the MRI machine and a poke and prod to the heart, Carla came bouncing in saying they found a way to fix everything. Make her legs functional, make the seizures stop, get her a kidney transplant, the whole she-bang. She was so close to turning the treatment down when Perry walked in with a stack of papers, throwing hem on her lap before signing the statement papers.

Two days and countless shots and surgery's later, a green eyed girl named Rose Cox opened her eyes to her fathers.

Her life as a fully functioning 16 year old was the time of her life. She had parents who loved her, siblings she never hesitated to babysit, and a close family by her Papa. Perry was laid back with her social life, letting the girl stay out until one in the morning, wear what she wanted, and do what she wanted. For all he knew, she could drop dead any moment, and he wanted her to do everything she wanted to do before health started becoming an issue again.

When asked about her future, the girl would simply say, "The normal. Kids, a husband, a nice job, a long life." In fact, her life goal seemed to become getting pregnant and having a healthy baby.

At an annual check-up, Doctor Cox had to give heart-breaking news to his daughter. She didn't have a working uterus. She acted like it was fine, but Johnny still felt the need to bring a plate of cookies up to her and tuck her in for the night to cheer her up.

At 19, she was a promising med student, passing classes with flying colors. She still lived at home with her family, a brother who's getting to the annoying age and a sister who's still in the stage of pure innocence. Her life seemed great.

Until one morning in February, when her eyes turned back to that chillingly dull purple.

Everything happened too fast for Perry, JD, and Carla. It started with Perry rushing her to the ER at one in the morning, JD explaining to the neighbors that he needed them to watch the kids, Carla pushing her eigh month pregnant self out of bed to be with Perry. At five in the morning, Elliot was rushing to zap the girl's heart back, JD was holding onto Perry for dear life, and Carla was crying her eyes out.

At eight forty-seven in the morning, February twenty-third, Rose Cox passed away, leaving behind a huge gap in the hearts of countless people.

Her biological parent's didn't even come to the funeral, ignoring the invite sent days before. JD had to hold the kids, explaining to little Jennifer that her big sister wouldn't be coming back, and Perry helped Carla write the paper she had promised Rose years before on her illness.

Life changed dramatically for them all. An empty, still-decorated room in a big house, a sterilized room in a hospital, an empty space in three hearts.

The moment her casket hit the ground, a small baby in London opened his purple eyes to the world.

* * *

><p><strong>I wrote this in, like, five hours. Gah. I need sleep.<strong>

**No, I had no point for this. Thanks for reading.**

**1: Garamendi is an actual last name for a governor in California, where I'm guessing Scrubs was shot it. I have nothing against the man. I'm just using his name as a standing place.**

_**Oh, and, I don't own Scrubs.**_


End file.
